ACCEL

The game is a runner where you pilot a spaceship to avoid obstacles and collect orbs to increase your score. Some orbs have elongated shapes, you have to turn to align your ship with the shape to gain maximum points.

You can download and play it on Steam (here)

Developed by a team of 9 students from Objectif 3D (Objectif 3D - itch.io) in 3 months. I was one of the 3 programmers and my main task was the 3Cs. No lines of C++ code were typed, it was the end of 1st year project we had to develop the game using the UE4 blue print system.

The piloting of the ship is quite rough, especially on the keyboard, but the game was clearly designed to be played with the controller. Despite many playtests I had trouble getting a smooth and lively movement, but our GD/LD was satisfied so I ended up accepting that this was the feedback that prevailed. For the anecdote when the game was released on Steam we had totally forgotten to include a key bind and, as a French student, our game was released with the AZERTY key (ZQSD instead of WASD), when the steam reviews started to fall down and pointed out that it was unplayable on the keyboard we became aware of our mistake and quickly got the chance for a teacher to help us integrate a key bind module. 

However, I was also able to fix some bugs related to sounds, FX, UI omissions and also some tutorial elements (which was too long and some interface elements were still "props"), in short, this led to a life-saving patch.

The game was done in 3 months, we were 3 programmers, 1 GD/LD and 5 graphic artist. The scope of the game evolved a lot during the first month and more than half of our work was not kept, the simple and direct gameplay of the space runner imposed itself during the development because we were limited in time and resources. The graphic designers did a titanic work, concerning me I had to be a little cunning to manage the movements/translation and rotations of the device (which should not influence its movement). At the end of the project I also integrated a very different model whose behavior was more complex in relation to control (the sphere surrounded by a ring), the original design of this model was dear to the hearts of several team members and it seemed useful to offer the player a character offering a really different visual feedback. 

The production went well, we are proud of this little game. The organization was quite natural and coherent and despite a rush at the end of the project the time was well managed and the scope of the game was respected (and even allowed the inclusion of a few little things like extra skins). 

Concerning my work on the project beyond the 3Cs and debug, I'm proud to have proposed and created a small GPE that can be found in the middle of the 2nd level. It's a rotating scenery element (a hollow hexagonal shape). Several had been placed to decorate an empty area separating the two parts of the level, so I proposed to the GD/LD to create an object using the hexagonal structure asset that would move across the player's path while rotating on itself, and that would systematically present itself "face open" to the player, allowing him to pass through the object rather than hit it. A rather basic scripted object, but which can offer a nice effect. My proposal has been validated by the GD, I could make this small object quickly, by setting its rotation/translation speed to the player's (because the ship accelerates when it does not take damage) to ensure that it is always perfectly at the desired location, but still offering a small risk of hitting the player. I also made sure that in terms of LD we only had to place the object by centering it on the player's path (a kind of imaginary line between the entrance and the exit of the level) then a simple rotation on the X axis allowed the object to slide from a different direction. (I had the goal to make it possible from other axes but it would have required much more work) and thus to be able to place several of them while sending them from different places (and all turning in the right direction to let the player pass in the center of the structure).

In short, it's a silly detail on which I didn't work for a long time, but I'm proud of it and 2 youtube videos have made me so hot in my heart, because this little GPE was my proposal and my realization (here and here).

ACCEL is my first real team game, it was a real pleasure. With its lot of difficulty and a very measured ambition. But I thank, greet and congratulate warmly all my comrades and friends (big up "Carnosaures & Didosacs" team !)

GD/LD
Zedekiel Grably

Graphic Artist
Lea Barbusse
Ewen Castel
Clement Labeaume
Quentin Ricci
Marine Sacriste

Programmer
Guillaume Berindei
Jean-Baptiste Dionisi (it's me)
Thomas Piessat